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Cast something in the light

Dear friends,

Here is the original sentence from which my questions arise:

“but in any case, his questions about Turkey's EU ambitions, plus his September lecture in Regensburg, Germany, in which he raised hard questions about the ways in which certain Islamic conceptions of God led to lethal worldly consequences, have conspired, in the global media's mind, to cast Pope Benedict's impending visit to Turkey in a light that both he and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew dislike: as far as most of the world is concerned, the pope is going to Islamic Turkey, not to the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, and the real issue being engaged in Istanbul from Nov. 28 through Dec. 1 involves Catholicism and Islam, not Catholicism and Orthodoxy.”

I feel cast… in the light that is similar to cast … in the language or in the way as in "She cast her request in very polite language". But I am more interested in the metaphoric aspect of the word CAST. There are two ways to use CAST as in the following:

A. to cast a soft light over warm summer evenings (literal meaning)… could you cast more light on the background to JULIAN COPE's `(metaphoric meaning)

B. has done things lately that have annoyed me and cast him in a poorer light than I like to think of… empiricism and evolutionism did not cast religion in an interesting or even challenging light…

My question is: is there a metaphoric connection between group A and Group B? It seems to me in Group B, “cast .. in the light” seems to mean “to formulate.. in a fashion or language”. Back to the original sentence above, can we say that all the activities stemming from “cast” takes place in the global media's mind?

I am sort of interested in George Lakoff’s theory of metaphor and feel that this could be a very useful tool for teaching ESL. What do you think?

Re: Cast something in the light

As I see it, only group B is a metaphor. To say that "it cast a different light on the situation" (metaphorically) means that our perspective has changed, and ultimately our opinion or the way it was formed.

When looking at a scene, everything depends on the lighting, so when we "see it in a different light" we are considering different reasons or factors than the 'standard' or the way we saw it before.

Say I saw a sunlit scene of a man smiling warmly in the sunlight (a sunny disposition). Now I find out that that man is a murderer. I will no longer find his complexion sunny. I would see him in a 'manic' 'twisted' 'cold' or somesuch light, as if the sky had become somehow ligted differently in order to show his bad qualities in my perception.

Re: Cast something in the light

Originally Posted by JSmiley

As I see it, only group B is a metaphor. To say that "it cast a different light on the situation" (metaphorically) means that our perspective has changed, and ultimately our opinion or the way it was formed.

When looking at a scene, everything depends on the lighting, so when we "see it in a different light" we are considering different reasons or factors than the 'standard' or the way we saw it before.

Say I saw a sunlit scene of a man smiling warmly in the sunlight (a sunny disposition). Now I find out that that man is a murderer. I will no longer find his complexion sunny. I would see him in a 'manic' 'twisted' 'cold' or somesuch light, as if the sky had become somehow ligted differently in order to show his bad qualities in my perception.

By the way, I think in group A, the second sentence is metaphorical (could you cast more light on the background to JULIAN COPE's ), right? Thanks again.

Re: Cast something in the light

Originally Posted by ian2

By the way, I think in group A, the second sentence is metaphorical (could you cast more light on the background to JULIAN COPE's ), right? Thanks again.

Ian2

Yes you are right, I was reading too quickly. You can take note that when we are just 'casting light' and not a 'different' or 'kind' of light, then the meaning becomes "give information or understanding" whereas before there was only the darkness of ignorance and misunderstanding. You could say that the group A metaphor is more literal (with the synonym 'illuminate' also working as in "illuminate the background of Julian Cope.") than the group B ones.

PS: I suspect you know this, but the real meaning of CAST is THROW, incase anyone was wondering.

Re: Cast something in the light

Originally Posted by JSmiley

Yes you are right, I was reading too quickly. You can take note that when we are just 'casting light' and not a 'different' or 'kind' of light, then the meaning becomes "give information or understanding" whereas before there was only the darkness of ignorance and misunderstanding. You could say that the group A metaphor is more literal (with the synonym 'illuminate' also working as in "illuminate the background of Julian Cope.") than the group B ones.

PS: I suspect you know this, but the real meaning of CAST is THROW, incase anyone was wondering.

Thanks. again. I am not a native speaker. So I sometimes need someone's "back-up" to "nail" some sentences. As I said in my previous message, I believe conceptual metaphor theory can help people in learning English and I am happy that your interpretation is always crystal clear.